Pick of the Week: National Instruments Updates VeriStand

NI VeriStand 2012 from National Instruments (NI; Austin, TX) is the most recent version of the company’s software environment for configuring and running real-time testing applications. NI VeriStand 2012 reportedly incorporates new features for efficiently configuring and running real-time testing applications such as HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) simulators and test cell control and monitoring systems. The company reports that, with NI VeriStand 2012, engineers can now acquire and analyze data at much higher speeds than before and use this version’s new tools to scale, calibrate, and condition measurements to ensure accuracy and improve test quality.

NI VeriStand provides functionality for configuring and running real-time testing applications. National Instruments recently introduced the 2012 version of the software environment. Image courtesy of National Instruments.

NI VeriStand 2012 provides a configuration-based environment with an open software interface that engineers use to perform high-speed data acquisition and logging to find data during post-processing. Said to be suitable for developing real-time testing applications across a range of jobs, including embedded software validation and mechanical test systems, NI VeriStand, adds the company, helps engineers configure a multicore-ready real-time engine to execute tasks such as real-time stimulus generation, data acquisition for high-speed and conditioned measurements, and calculated channels and custom channel scaling.

NI VeriStand can import control algorithms, simulation models, and similar tasks from NI’s LabVIEW graphical programming environment for designing and deploying measurement and control systems, as well as from third-party development platforms. Engineers can monitor and interact with tasks using the NI VeriStand’s run-time editable user interface, which provides tools for value forcing, alarm monitoring, I/O calibration, and stimulus profile editing. NI VeriStand can be customized and extended with such software as LabVIEW and ANSI C/C++.

Product features now provided in NI VeriStand include real-time model execution from a variety of modeling environments; an open, extensible architecture to create custom code modules or incorporate custom user interfaces; built-in test automation using the Stimulus Profile Editor; and integration with NI’s hardware I/O library, including FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays), embedded networks, machine vision, RF, and a range of multifunction data acquisition modules including instrument-grade I/O.

NI VeriStand provides a configuration-based option for creating real-time testing applications. Image courtesy of National Instruments.

NI VeriStand is available in three options. The NI VeriStand Full Development System provides the ability to develop and deploy real-time testing applications, while the NI VeriStand PC Development System provides all of the features of NI VeriStand in a Windows-only environment. The NI Developer Suite Real-Time Testing and HIL Simulation Option bundles the NI VeriStand Full Development System with NI LabVIEW, enabling users to add customized functionality to real-time testing applications. (See the link below to compare options.)

Also, on its website, NI has assembled a collection of NI VeriStand add-ons from internal National Instruments developers and the NI VeriStand community. One such add-on, INERTIA from National Instruments Alliance Partner Wineman Technology, is said to enhance the capabilities of NI VeriStand to provide an integrated control and monitoring solution for test cell applications such as dynamometer and servo-hydraulic test systems.

“As the importance of software continues to grow in today’s products and systems,” said Mike Santori, NI Business and Technology Fellow, in the release announcement “we continue to add new features to NI VeriStand to help engineers meet strict time-to-market requirements despite increasing test challenges.”

Pricing for NI VeriStand begins at $1,999. For more information on NI VeriStand, visit National Instruments.

Download a flyer on NI VeriStand.

Compare the different versions of NI VeriStand.

Check out the NI VeriStand “Getting Started” videos series.

Sign up to download a complimentary trial of NI VeriStand.

Read the case study “Ford Deploys Fuel Cell Test System Using NI VeriStand and the INERTIA Add-On.”

Browse the NI VeriStand apps.

See why DE’s editors selected NI VeriStand as their Pick of the Week.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.